Star Wars Episode 7 News

Friday, January 17, 2014

Another Script Tweet from Bad Robot. Ewan McGregor Doesn't Think He Will Be in Episode 7. Lucasfilm's New Office in Singapore.

Hit the jump to find out the latest funny tweet from Bad Robot, Ewan McGregor's thoughts on his involvement with Episode 7 and how does Lucasfilm's new office in Singapore look...As you remember few months ago Bad Robot tweeted the following image:

Many people (including me) assumed that it was the Episode 7 script. And maybe it was. Then we got the news about the script rewrites and the change of Michael Arndt with Lawrence Kasdan. Later Disney's chairman Alan Horn revealed that script is expected to be ready in January 2014.Today Bad Robot made another script tweet. Could this mean that the final Episode 7 script is ready? Who knows. Nevertheless the tweet is pretty funny and some of the comments are even funnier:

While discussing with CNN his latest movie "August Ostage County" Ewan McGregor briefly talked if he will be making an appearance in the new Star Wars movie. Here's what he said:

Q: Are you going to play Obi-Wan in Star Wars 7?

A: I've been sitting next to my phone for 3 months now and nobody has called. I don't think I'm going to be in it. If they call I'm ready. I'll put on the cloak.

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Lucasfilm just opened up their new office in Singapore, which is named after the Sandcrawler vehicle from Star Wars: A New Hope. George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy were attending the event. Kennedy said:

“When we first opened our Singapore studio in 2005, the local [Singapore] digital production landscape looked very different. It was relatively small, with a limited talent pool and virtually no visual effects work being done… By investing in local talent we’ve been able to significantly grow our Singapore studio into a world-class digital production facility.”

Workers in the new building, which is owned by Lucas, will focus on digital effects and animation for movies like “Transformers 4,” “Avengers 2” and the upcoming “Star Wars” films.The 242,190 square-foot building won’t just be used by Lucasfilm, according to Bloomberg. Office space will also be taken up by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia operations and ESPN Asia Pacific.

^ there's the rumor of Ewan McGregor getting snubbed, and there is the past stories of Boba Fett (prequel version) getting killed by Boba Fett (OT version,) and then there's the rumor that Luke, Han, and Leia will take center stage... And of course there's the fact that Clone Wars was taken off the air at its finale... shall I go on?

I don't know how people can stand the original trilogy compared to the prequels in terms of effects. I mean the storyline is better in the original, but the special effects in the prequels were WAY better. I mean contrast the fight between Darth Vader and Luke vs. the Episode III fight with Obi-Wan and Anakin. Also, I love the podrace scenes which would have looked so fake before.

Have you ever watched any sci-fi film of that time? Just mind, you'll see really bad special effects if you want that...I can't dream a better special effect in '77 than that huge Star Destroyer Flying over your head, man!

Once upon a time, George Lucas said, "A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing."

Then, a decade or so later, he set about proving it with his prequel series.

Yes, the prequels had CGI effects wedged into every corner of the screen. And yes, some of them looked pretty cool. But the storyline was rarely strong enough to make any of that matter.

Was the saber fight at the end of Episode III flashier and more effects-laden than the duels between Luke and Vader in the original trilogy? Sure. Did it have the emotional impact of either of the Luke/Vader duels? I sure wish it had, but it really didn't. The problem for me was that Anakin was never really made to be all that likeable before he turned to the dark side, so the duel between him and Obi Wan ended up being Obi Wan hacking up a guy who had been an absolute douchebag all along. (That, and the notion that Anakin became Darth Vader "because he loved too much" was pretty weak sauce too.)

So yeah, there's a lot of impressive flipping around and doing spiffy baton-twirling tricks during that final Episode III duel, and the lava effects are impressive... but that's about it. Story and character-wise, it doesn't come anywhere near the Luke/Vader duels.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the script was made with the analog typesetter.. With new technology taking a backseat to puppets and crude stop-motion and old cameras, filmmakers are going "old school" for the sake of it. So much for the pioneering spirit in the previous Star Wars films. (and yes, the prequels had their technical innovations.)

Pioneering can only go so far before it runs out of oomph. Once pioneering filmmaking begins to take the place of tangible filmmaking there is a disconnect. It seems to be okay to have somewhat of a mix but most modern sci-fi/fantasy films have gone too far and are utterly unbelievable. If the film can't sell me the visuals then I don't care about what happens in the movie or to the characters.

I disagree 100%. Back in the late 60s, 2001: A Space Odyssey was considered the best pioneering special effects can be. Many people were saying that effects couldn't (and shouldn't) even try to improve. Imagine if filmmakers gave in!

Look. I grew up loving Star Wars. I've watched the original trilogy for as long as I can remember. I don't remember the first time I watched Star Wars, because I was so young.

I was nine when I waited in line for episode 1. As a nine year old kid, I thoroughly enjoyed it. (Except for jar jar, he's the reason that movie wasn't half as good as it could've been.)

I fell asleep during episode 2. Only Star Wars movie to date that I have. I hate episode 2.

But episode 3 made up for it. A great example of what Star Wars can and should be.

So I'm a fan of both the original, and most of the prequel trilogy. So with all that said, I don't see how the sequels are snubbing the prequels. And that's because the prequels had a purpose: tell a story that will lead into the original movies. It accomplished that.

The point of the sequels is to continue where the original trilogy left off. So obviously, they don't want to focus on characters from the prequels, this isn't about looking at the past... That's why it's a SEQUEL trilogy. It's a continuation of of the story of Luke Han, and leia as they pass on the torch to the new generation (we assume anyways.) Characters like Mace Windu, young Obi-Wan, etc wouldn't make much sense to the narrative going forward. They could absolutely be featured in spin off films, but we don't need cameos just for the sake of cameos.

I wouldn't want to see a ghost of Obi-Wan. Because of the age issues, there's only several ways they could do it.

!st, by having an all CGI Alec Guiness, which would likely look fake as hell.

2nd, by having Ewan or some other actor wear Alen Guiness looking make up, which also would look fake as hell.

3rd, by having Ewan McGregor play a young Obi-Wan ghost, which wouldn't make sense given we've already seen Ob-Wan's ghost as an old man on the OT. Unless of course we're headed for yet another revision of the OT.

Having said all that, I would absolutely love to see Ewan as Obi-Wan in Episode VII.

I do think however, that the best way to accomplish that would be to have him return as a hologram in some sort of Jedi Library holocron or something.